Tropical
Pizza Express

Pizza Express

198 Trinity Road, SW17 7HR, Wandsworth, United Kingdom

Wine • Pizza • Cheese • Italian


"Having eaten at this establish countless times before during my childhood, it seemed the perfect place to remedy the vestiges of alcohol in our system from the night before. Eagerly, my friends and I downloaded the Pizza Express app, a clever scheme by the restaurant to encourage students such as ourselves to visit the restaurant given the billion pound debt faced by the company. My friends both enjoyed a free dough ball dish for signing up whilst I refrained from ordering due to lack of appetite, saving my deals for another day. The food, as expected, was bog-standard, run-of-the-mill pizza express, food that we have all had before and will most likely have again. This was just about nice enough to justify the expenditure due to lack of proper competition in the area and the proximity of the restaurant. However, that being said, it was slightly sloppy, stodgy and lacking structure, typical to that of pizza express pizzas. No major complaints arose from the quality of the food as it was no different to that purchased usually from pizza express. However, our qualms with the experience arose from the mistreatment of our group by the staff. The attitude of staff was blunt in the settling of the bill, which had to be adjusted only once to include our offers on the app, necessitating the printing of a single extra receipt. This was met with frustration and disdain despite the fact that my friends had never used the app before and were unfamiliar with its operation. Given that my demographic, younger students who may not normally opt to eat there without the deals, is the target of these schemes, I was surprised by such shortness from the staff and at the different treatment given to young adults. That being said, the staff were, on the whole, very helpful. However, it is such a shame that only one waiter in particular ruined the experience over such a trivial issue. On the whole, the food was just about up to standard. However, we left with a bitter taste in our mouths and the desire to leave a review for the first time given that this behaviour was so out of order."

William De Percy

William De Percy

Jeburgh Road Otterburn, Northumberland NE19 1NR, NE19 1AZ, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Food • British • Seafood • Lodging


"This was our second visit to the pub, which is beautifully decorated. We booked in to enjoy an early evening Sunday roast and a few drinks. The young lady who greeted us was warm and welcoming and she thoughtfully put us in a quiet little corner so our large dog wouldn’t be a nuisance to any of the other diners. She also brought our drinks quickly before taking our food order. Unfortunately a few more tables arrived and the dining room was getting full and that’s when it seemed the staff couldn’t cope. We’d ordered another drink as our starters arrived but we got through our first and second courses without the drink arriving. There were also two booths to the side of us and each of these parties were waiting well over half an hour to receive their drinks and there was no sign of any food, so something was wrong either with the bar staff, or not having enough waiting staff on duty to look after the number of diners. After we’d finished, I went to the bar to ask for the bill and the waitress was just pulling my husband’s beer as I approached. Unfortunately it was too late by then as we’d finished eating. To be fair to her, she’d already realised people weren’t getting their drinks and had gone behind the bar to pull them herself. She was extremely apologetic. I told her I wasn’t blaming her, as I could see she was running around busy the whole time we were there and she could only do so much, so this review is absolutely not aimed at her. When she had time, she was brilliant at her job. I’m writing it in the hope that whoever manages the dining room either gets some more resource in place during busy periods or they organise their team better. The food was good on the whole. My ceaser salad starter was lovely and the roast beef dinner was good, although the gravy didn’t seem to be made homemade, which was a shame. My husband had slow roasted belly pork tasty but this hadn’t been roasted for long enough, so the fat hadn’t rendered down like it should have done."

Avenue Cafe

Avenue Cafe

112 Emerson Way, BS16 7AR, South Gloucestershire, United Kingdom

Cafe • Vegan • British • Vegetarian


"This, our local café, normally closes in the late afternoon about 17:00 this time of year; but occasionally it opens up on a Friday evening, until late, to provide a tapas evening with live music. These are occasions which we try to support as much as we can. Tonight was the latest of three such events that we have enjoyed supporting; it was also the last of the, I believe, four summer events have been held. The format, was as before, to stagger table reservation times to allow the kitchen to efficiently produce plates to order. This reservation system helps avoid what could be bottlenecks, that would surely result, if too many orders flood in at the more popular times. The menu is the same for all of these events; our preferences were again to the fore for certain plates, as follows: Chicken Skewers Greek style marinaded with yoghurt. Vegetable Spring Rolls with sweet chilli dip crispy, crunchy rolls filled with savoury mix of vegetables. Lamb kofta balls with tzatziki dip. Patatas Bravas crispy potatoes in a salsa brava with a creamy aioli. Skin on fries. It was once again a much enjoyed meal and, on this occasion, we had invited my Son to join us. He really enjoyed the plates and the atmosphere. Wine: we chose a bottle of the ‘Definition Pinot Grigio’ from north eastern Italy: very complex and much enjoyed: excellent. This bottle was my Son’s contribution to the evening (apart from, of course, his company). We followed that with a bottle of the ‘Pringle Bay’ Sauvignon Blanc from the Western Cape, South Africa: this was very good; wonderfully refreshing. My Partner and I paid for that one! Wine here is not too expensive, especially bearing in mind the quality. A note to say that the Patatas Bravas plate was excellent on this occasion, because the potatoes were indeed crispy. Our favourite plate, for all three of us, was however the ‘Vegetable Spring Rolls’. These were absolutely fabulous, such a great texture. If this plate was regularly featured on the menu, I am sure it would be a very popular choice. The provision of a sweet chilli dipping sauce is a masterpiece of culinary inspiration. The music for all of these events was a duo singing covers of popular songs accompanied by acoustic guitars. They use guitar mics to amplify the music an their vocals. On previous occasions the band have not been too loud; sadly tonight they were. There were times that we couldn’t hear each other speak, and my Partner had to twice ask the band to tone it down. There is a time and place for loud music and this wasn’t it."